Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Introducing pickerel to bass pond??

So I have a private pond that is on a farm. Its around 3 acres. It has a lot of wood and laydowns but not alot of grass. It is around 13 ft at the deepest. It has trophy largemouth as in 7-8 lbs. Not many though. It has bluegill but it has way more crappie. My question is if I introduce pickerel will it help reduce the crappie population? And would it negatively effect the bass population?

In my experience fishing different lakes, I find bodies of water with lmb and pickerel the bass tend to be healthier and bigger on average.

Should I introduce pickerel?

Pickerel do compete for food with LMB, and would most likely affect their growth rate. Not sure how they'd affect the crappie population, pickerel have relatively smaller mouths. Growing up in Upstate New York, we always thought of Pickerel as trash fish, and were told to toss 'em on the bank if you caught one. If your goal is to create bigger bass, I wouldn't add pickerel. If you love pickerel, and want to add some diversity to your pond, then I'd say go for it.

Sounds like to get more bass you need to eliminate some big bluegill and Croppie. THey are probably eating yoy basslings.

Best way to do that. Mmmmm electro fishing? Or call in a bunch of buddies and tell them to go to town?

Yep, and the size of the Crappie they want gone is a factor too. If they want them eradicated, you may be able to do that via rod & reel in a 3-acre BoW with some buddies. If they're just looking for population control, LMB should be able to do the job, in theory. A lot of variables in that equation.

I have to add my opinion on this... To do it right, you must start at the bottom of the cycle. Small pickerel work on small fish. The hope would be to work on the abundance of said crappie. The Pickerel also stay smaller-longer, also an advantage when trying to remove a smaller target forage, which- in theory- should work, but we all know the outcome of theory.
I think stocking these to control larger numbers of smaller fish-smaller than angling can effectively target- makes good sense. Angling can target the larger size which there are fewer of.
If an approach such as this is used then the pickerel need to be removed at a pre-determined size and replaced with small stock again.
The only issue I can see off the top is yearling crappie are pelagic in nature, Pickerel are littoral which may be an issue.
Unfortunately, the best fish for crappie control/management is so far, not available to the public...Saugeye, as they are also pelagic critters from day one and tend to follow suit with crappie through-out their cycle. Somebody should get set up to raise those...
We have a 12 acre impoundment that we tried to eradicate BCP with angling-that we documented, placed a 21" min on LMB and incentivized intensive BCP harvest showed that angling does little if anything to a BCP population that is out of control.
LMB recruitment was inhibited in this case as well, it was beyond fixing without major expenses that were deemed not feasible.

Lusk either wrote or told me about a 40 acre sporting club lake inNorth Texas that was loaded with stunted crappie. He used hybrid stripers. When the crappie problem was solved, they targeted the stripers by fishing. Then the bass controlled the remaining crappie.

I would also agree with Dave's recommendations from Bob Lusk. HSB will attack any fish they can fit into their mouth. And they have fast growth rates if food is present. They are great fish for catching on rod and reel. When I think of a pond with large numbers of cp I am thinking there might be alot of stunted 3 to 4" cp so I would look for 12 to 14" HSB for stocking. Here in Texas it's pretty easy to find that sized HSB but no idea on getting them in Maryland.

What species of pickerel are you contemplating? And will they spawn in ponds? Things to consider for the long term, versus HSB with complete control of population numbers.

That's probably the biggest determining factor. Pickerel, particularly Chain Pickerel that I'm familiar with, don't inhabit the same waters as YoY Crappie. On average, it takes about 5 years for a Chain Pickerel to reach 2 pounds, and I can't imagine them eating a Crappie that's bigger than 2 or 3 inches, if they even come across one. Where I'm from, a 2 pound Pickerel is considered very large, so you have to think about what a 1 pound Pickerel can handle... and we're talking minnow-sized fish at that point.

I'm planning on doing BCP in my pond, and using BC (Blue Catfish) to control them. According to a study I posted a while ago, BC ate a lot of Crappie, especially during the colder months, since they inhabit similar water depths.

Crappie grow very fast in their first 2 years. Around here, a 2-year old Crappie averages 8", sometimes over 9", so it doesn't give a lot of time for population control.

Another vote for Hybrid Stripers here. The predators and prey have to be in the same area for the plan to work.